If you live in the United States or another country in which the population elects its leaders, you are familiar
with the term Independence. In the US, we have various rights based upon local, state and federal laws that
allow us, as residents and citizens, to be free.

We are taught at an early age that freedom has become one of the primary pillars of independence. Freedom allows us
to choose a religion, reside where we want and live our lives in the manner we feel best suits the needs of our family.
While many of us have varying opinions on the breadth and depth of freedom we should have, no one will argue that we
should have it.

If you happen to read any of my previous blog entries on Sticky Faith, you’ll notice an underlying theme that bubbles
to the top. Even though Christ has given us the ultimate freedom from death and sin, He still wants us to be dependent
on him.

Why is that?

Let me start with Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” If we place our faith and trust in Christ, we
begin see that the Bible’s teaches us rich stories of people needing to be dependent on God; based upon that
dependence, they can achieve anything.

Any physical, mental, spiritual and emotional problem can be solved by Christ. This echo’s Matthew 11:30 “For my yoke
is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”

We can be a stubborn folk. Especially men, we want to solve all our problems on our own with minimal outside help.
This keeps the perception that we are strong and independent, not weak and dependent on others. But that’s the point,
isn’t it. We are dependent on others. We live in an interconnected society that requires all its moving parts to work
in unison and in order.

Dependence on Christ is no different. In fact, the more we place our trust in God to solve our problems, the more He
will solve them. Those solutions may come from Christ’s direct intervention, guiding others to help us and Christ can
empower us to solve our own problems.

Ironic isn’t it. The more dependent we become on God, the more independent we can be.